The sales process is a completely different experience these days and a hard sell rarely, if ever, works effectively. Moving prospects through the sales funnel requires a longer--but more effective--process, during which you must educate your customers and solve their problems. So, instead of viewing sales as a simple transaction, approach your marketing funnel activities in three stages. To ensure that your sales process is as successful as possible, pay attention to some common do's and don'ts for each of the three stages of your marketing funnel nurturing campaign.

Tony Hsieh blew over $100 million making mistakes in the hiring process at Zappos Inc. With employee training and investment costs so high these days, it's more important than ever to hire slow and fire fast. This is a difficult position to maintain, since the pressure is usually high to fill a position as quickly as possible. Here are a few mistakes to avoid in the hiring process that may just save your organization millions of dollars.

What a multi-screen world we live in! We might watch a basketball game or shop online with our smartphones while checking our email or playing a game on our tablets. Not only are people moving between multiple screens on smartphones, tablets, computers and television, but we are also using multiple screens simultaneously to accomplish tasks. These actions describe the two types of multi-screen user behavior: sequential screening and simultaneous screening.

At its core, marketing is the business of telling stories. People are moved more by stories than by logic--and it's important that they can identify with your narrative. Translate the value of your business into a compelling narrative, and you'll connect with your target market in a more meaningful way.